STERLING — It was the kind of performance that Belvidere North girls cross country coach John Paddock couldn’t complain about.

The Blue Thunder had strong individual performances throughout Saturday’s Class 2A Sterling Regional meet that led to them placing second overall. The first six placing teams advanced to next week’s Class 2A Belvidere Sectional.

The Blue Thunder had five of its scoring runners place in the top 25 on the course at Hoover Park.

“It’s what we expected,” said Paddock, whose team scored 71 points. “All the girls ran well.”

On the boys side, Dixon claimed team honors with five runners in the top 10. The Dukes went 1-2 with Simon Thorpe (15:33) and Cody Sondergoth (15:35). Austin Trevino took fifth (16:02), followed by Evan Grady (9th, 16:20) and Skylar Mitchell (10th, 16:27) rounded out the scoring.

“We’re excited about how the boys ran today,” Dixon coach Evan Thorpe said. “We were going for the win.”

Hononegah boys and girls each took third at its regional meet held at Roland Olson Forest Preserve.

The boys were led by junior Jared Christiansen who placed 11th at 16:15. Sophomore Nick Licari (26th, 16:34), Jeremiah Harp (44th, 16;43), Enkh-Orgil Enkhbayer (66th, 16:54) and P.J. Graham (90th, 16:57) all placed in the top 100 for the Indians.

The girls were led by sophomore Nicole Altoff, who finished her home course with a time of 19:07 for fourth.

“I was really happy with my time and the team getting third,” Altoff said.